Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/197

 ; and as was his name, so were his life and his manners; and he was beloved of God and of man, worthy of honor and of glory on earth and in heaven, and he steadfastly adhered to the holy prelate, nor ever could be separated from him; for when the saint, being weary, would lie down to rest, this unspotted youth, flying from his father and from his mother, would cast himself at the feet of the holy man, and enfold them in his bosom, and ever and anon would he kiss them, and there would he abide. But on the morrow, when the saint was arrayed for his journey, and, with one foot in his sandal, the other on the ground, was ascending his chariot, the boy caught his foot with fast-closing hands, and besought and implored that he might not leave him. And when his parents would have separated him from the saint, and retained him with themselves, the boy, with wailing and lamentation, cried out, Away, away, I entreat ye! Release me, that I may go with my spiritual father. And the saint, observing such devotion in his tender heart and body, blessed him in the name of the Lord, and, bidding him ascend with him the chariot, prophesied that he would be, as indeed he was, the successor of his ministry. And this Benignus succeeded Saint Patrick in the primacy of all Ireland, and, being illustrious for his virtues and his miracles, at length he rested in the Lord.

And the saint, on that most holy Sabbath preceding the Vigil of the Passover, turned aside to a fit and pleasant place, called Feartfethin, and there, according to the custom of the